Believe It or Not, Haikus About Charlie Rose, Sean Penn and Others

More on what I’m reading right now, because I’m still too blitzed to post a review …

The kinkiest poetry book I’ve come across in a while: Beth Lapides’s Did I Wake You? Haikus for Modern Living (Soft Skull, 2006) www.softskull.com. And Lapides means “modern.” These are haiku about Iraq, Google and tantric sex — not to mention, Larry King, Mario Cuomo and Salma Hayek. Here’s my favorite so far: “Charlie Rose dresses / down for Sean Penn, who dresses / up for Charlie Rose.” What would Philip Larkin think of that? If Lapides lived in my part of New Jersey, she’d probably be writing haikus about the “Mad Hatter” bandit, just caught and suspected of robbing 18 banks (though he insists it’s all a case of “mistaken identity”).